PJ's Forever Knight Journal

fkficfest has opened its sign-up. I posted my prompts today and look forward to playing. Please consider joining as well. Sign-ups are open through May 25. While waiting for your assignment, why not read through the marvelous creations of 2011 and 2010.

I posted my contribution to oldschoolfic several weeks ago. The release of all stories is eagerly anticipated.

I've finally finished the concluding part of my "Relation" series, which focuses on Natalie/Lacroix. This story makes only sense if you've read the "Evidence" series as well as the other parts from the "Relation" series.

Title: Sealing Relations
Fandom: Forever Knight
Category: Romance
Pairing: Lacroix/Natalie, Lacroix/Nick
Rating: Adult
Disclaimer: Forever Knight and its characters were created by Barney Cohen and James D. Parriott and are copyrighted to Sony/Tristar. None of the characters in this story belongs to me. I'm just borrowing them temporarily. No infringement intended. No profit is being made.
Acknowledgements: Special thanks to foxy11814 for beta reading.

Locations: AO3 or My website.

Poetic License
59E59 Theatres, New York City, 15.2.2012

At the time I had booked my flight to New York, I had no idea that Geraint Wyn Davies would be there at the same time doing a play at 59E59 Theatres. It was one of these lucky coincidences that make life so exciting.

Written by Jack Canfora, Poetic License begins with Katherine (Natalie Kuhn) and Edmund (Ari Butler) climbing through a window into the living room of her parents. It’s the eve of her father’s birthday and Katherine wants to seize the opportunity to introduce her new boyfriend to her parents. Edmund appears to be a pleasant young man who is appropriately nervous to meet Katherine’s father John Greer (Geraint Wyn Davies), a distinguished professor of literature and Pulitzer Prize winning poet who is on the verge of being named Poet Laureate. His academic career has been largely managed by his manipulative wife Diane (Liza Vann) who is hoping to use the family gathering as appropriate background for a PBS interview that she has arranged in view of the expected Poet Laureate appointment.

When the parents return home it becomes evident that Katherine is clearly Daddy’s girl, while there’s palpable tension between her and her mother. Once Edmund is alone with John, his manners change abruptly and he confronts him with allegations that John’s poetry wasn’t his own but plagiarized from Edmund’s deceased mother with whom John had a relationship years ago. As proof he presents a journal from his mother that contains everything that John has written. John contradicts, stating that the journal and his works were similar because they had lived together and his poems were a result from that period. He states that Edmund has inherited a mental disease from his mother who should never have had children.

It turns out that Edmund has only sought Katherine’s acquaintance in order to get to her father. Katherine’s world is crushed when she finds out that she has only been used by Edmund and that there are severe cracks in the high pedestal on which she has placed her father.

The play becomes very intense when the protagonists argue heatedly back and forth. Geraint gives a superb performance as John. It’s fascinating to watch how the tension bubbles up in him before it is released in scalding words that deny Edmund’s accusations like an erupting volcano. In the end, the truth remains subject to the viewer’s interpretation.

The theatre was very small and intimate. We were in the second row which was like sitting in the centre of the living room in which the raw and unsettling drama unfolded. Although the play ran only for 80 min without intermission, it was one of those plays that keep your mind busy long afterwards.

Shatner’s World: We just Live in it...
Music Box Theatre, New York City, 14.2.2012

William Shatner aka Captain Kirk has been my favourite star since 1982 when Star Trek aired on German television. So, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to see him live on stage in a one-man show called Shatner’s World: We just live in it.... The show had been announced in German media before advertising had begun in the US. In consequence we got very good seats in row three. :)

The Music Box Theatre was a cozy little very old theatre in a side street of Broadway. In the middle of the stage was a huge circular screen on which slides and film clips were presented during the show.

When William Shatner appeared on the stage to rapturous applause, I was pleasantly surprised how well and young he looked. During the show I became even more amazed at the energy the man still has considering his age.

This was the very first preview. In the beginning there was a problem with his microphone that kept making noises. He simply incorporated the process of fixing the problem into the show, introduced the technician who hurried on stage to replace the mike and joked that it was indeed the mike and not his bones that made the cracking noises, as some may have believed.

Then he entertained the audience with anecdotes from his life, often at his own expense, focusing largely on the early period before he became a star. He also mentioned some of the sad moments in his life, i.e. the deaths of his father and his wife. The show at large was a summary of his autobiography Up till now, which I highly recommend. I find it’s the most entertaining biography I’ve read since Errol Flynn’s My wicket, wicket ways.

The show ran for about 110 min without intermission. Afterwards there was the opportunity to buy some souvenirs. I got a poster, a fridge magnet and the DVD of The Captains, a documentary William Shatner filmed about the Star Trek captains.

The Pitmen Painters
Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ontario, 10.2.2012

The Pitmen Painters is one of the loveliest plays I’ve ever seen on stage. Written by Lee Hall, The Pitmen Painters is based on the true story of a group of miners from Ashington, Northumberland, who took an evening class in Art Appreciation, funded by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). Encouraged by a tutor from Newcastle, they started to paint and produced an impressive body of art. They achieved unexpected success and approval from the art community and were given prestigious gallery exhibitions during the 1930s and 1940s, while continuing to work in the mines every day. The play about class, art and male comradeship follows their development over a period from 1934 to 1947. Directed by Ron Ulrich, the production was both, funny and moving, and the characters were touching by their down-to-earth attitude.

The play begins with the group of three miners, a dental mechanic and an unemployed young man gathering in the meeting room to await the arrival of their tutor Robert Lyon (Jonathan Watton) from Newcastle. He’s younger than the others from the group (except for the young lad) and not the professor from a university they had expected. Nigel Bennett played painter George Brown who was in charge of the gatherings and as representative of the WEA kept insisting that rules are upheld in a funny, boisterous way. He had a pencil tugged behind his ear which he often used to write incidents he meant to report to the authorities into a notebook that he kept in his suit pocket.

Initially, the tutor began talking about styles and genres, which was completely beyond the comprehension of the group. They had chosen this class because they wanted to understand the meaning of art. So he encouraged them to paint what they knew – their village and their work down the mines. And then they discussed it amongst themselves, how the painting made them feel. The paintings or excerpts from them were shown on slides above the stage. As time moved on, their conversations about art became deeper and more philosophical.

Act one ends with the group sharing their thoughts about art after visiting an exhibit in London. The way they alternate in continuing the sentences from each other expresses neatly what a tightly-knit group they have become.

In Act two, Oliver Kilbourn (Michael Spencer Davis), the most talented of the group, contemplates whether he should accept the stipend that was offered to him by art patron Helen Sutherland (Sharry Flett). It’s his chance to quit working in the coal mines. Yet, he turns it down because he does not want to give up his job and isolate himself from the group.

Later, it’s Robert Lyon who leaves for Edinburgh where he has been appointed professor at the art college after writing a paper about the group and their progress. The play ends on the eve of nationalization of the coal industry with the group singing the Gresford Hymn. Nigel sang the first stanza solo before the others joined in, which was utterly stunning and caused goose bumps on my skin.

In summary, this was a brilliant and beautiful production. Ian D. Clark (Harry Wilson), Gray Powell (Young Lad/Ben Nicholson), Brian Tree (Jimmy Floyd) and Mary Elizabeth Wilcott (Susan Parks) rounded out the talented cast.

After Y Soccer and Backbencher, Nigel Bennett has lent his wonderful voice to the CBC radio drama Trust, Inc.that takes us behind the scenes of a Canadian public relations firm.

Nigel plays Byron Ambrose, publisher of The Post Telegram. So far he appeared in episodes 5 and 6.

Other familar names in the cast are Peter Outerbridge (Father's Day) and Colm Feore (Blood Money).

Trust, Inc. airs Thursdays at 11.30 p.m. at CBC Radio One. Previous episodes are available for download here.

Before returning to Stratford for the 60th season of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Geraint Wyn Davies and Nigel Bennett appear on stage elsewhere.

Nigel Bennett will be on stage as George Brown in The Pitmen Painters, written by Lee Hall, inspired by a book by William Feaver.

Synopsis: In 1934, a group of Ashington miners and a dental mechanic hired a professor from Newcastle University to teach an Art Appreciation evening class. Unable to understand each other, they embarked on one of the most unusual experiments in British art as the Pitmen learned to become painters.

The Pitmen Painters runs at Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ontario from Feb 8 to 25, 2012.

Geraint Wyn Davies will appear in Poetic License by Jack Canfora at 59E59 Theatres, New York.

Synopsis: Poet Laureate to-be, John Greer, comfortably ensconced as a professor of literature in a renowned university, owes much of his success to his wife, Diane, who has been aggressively shepherding his career. When the daughter and her new boyfriend return home for the weekend, hidden secrets are revealed that threatens to destroy his esteemed reputation and career.

Performances begin Feb 9, 2012.

While in New York and you happen to be a Trekkie besides an FK fan, there's also William Shatner's One-Man-Show Shatner's World - We just live in it running from Feb 14 to Mar 4, 2012 at Music Box Theatre, New York.

PJ's Forever Knight FanFiction Archive has a new design. I stayed with googlepages, but lightened up the background and enlarged the script size, which hopefully makes it easier on the eyes.

The layout is based on a widescreen PC which I assume have most people nowadays. Those who do not will have to scroll to the left and to the right. I'm not a web designer, so I've rather exhausted my skills with this website.

My earlier stories have all undergone a major revision (mostly adding paragraphs, correcting misspellings, grammar and punctuation), which hopefully makes them easier to read now.

On the website, the stories are categorized into faction-like pairings:

• Classic Tales (gen): 4 works
• Tales focusing on Nick and Natalie: 8 works
• Tales focusing on Nick and Lacroix: 16 works
• Tales focusing on Natalie and Lacroix: 3 works
• Tales focusing on Nick, Natalie and Lacroix: 1 work
• Tales focusing on Janette and Lacroix: 2 works

In addition there's also some artwork like collages and Nightcrawler Broadcasts.

Parallel to the new design, I've completed uploading all 34 stories to the AO3. I've backdated all to their original publication date except those I've uploaded last week. I'll keep these around for a month before backdating them as well.

As a result appeared the following chronology:

• 2003: 8 stories
• 2004: 9 stories
• 2005: 3 stories
• 2006: 4 stories
• 2007: 1 story
• 2008: 1 story
• 2009: 1 story
• 2010: 1 story
• 2011: 6 stories

Plans for 2012: I have currently 3 works in progress:

• A gen story featuring Natalie and Lacroix
• The concluding part of my "Relation" series featuring Natalie and Lacroix
• A flashback story featuring Nick, Lacroix and Janette

And I plan to participate in this year's fkficfest.

I received my DVDs of "Murdoch Mysteries" - Season 4 today.

Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian mystery series, set in Toronto in the late 19th century. Detective Murdoch solves crimes in Sherlock Holmes style, often applying "new inventions" during his investigations, which are the prototype of today's forensic techniques. He's assisted by the female coroner, Dr. Julia Ogden who also becomes his love interest in the course of the show.

I enjoy the show very much because of its wit, the congeniality of its characters, and the 19 century style. And of course the location of Toronto (although it's not recognizable at all), which would make it perfect for a cross-over with FK.

Initially there were three movies with Peter Outerbridge (known to FK fans as David Constantine in the flashback of "Father's Day") as Detective Murdoch. In the series, Detective Murdoch is played by Yannick Bisson.

In season 2, Geraint Wyn Davies appears in 2 episodes, playing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is the reason I ran across this show at all. Season 4 holds another highlight with Nigel Bennett appearing in the season finale as Inspector Giles. In this episode, Detective Murdoch finds himself as the prime suspect in a murder case, and Inspector Giles is called in from another station house to lead the investigation. We're likely to see more of Inspector Giles in season 5. :)

Addendum: Catherine Disher also appears in one episode of season 4.

The third play I saw in Stratford was "Richard III" by William Shakespeare.

Synopsis: A period of civil war in England has ended with the victory of the House of York and the ascend to the throne of King Edward IV. However, Edward's deformed youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is already plotting the elimination of those who stand between himself and the crown – beginning with his elder brother George, Duke of Clarence.

"Richard III" was a superb production. The most unusual thing was probably that Richard was played by Seana McKenna. However, she played her part brilliantly, I didn't find it in any way distracting that she was a woman.

Nigel Bennett played Lord Hastings who loses his head once he no longer supported Richard's schemes. Yet, he returns to the stage in the final act as ghost along with the numerous other characters that have been killed by Richard. What I found very well done in this production was the idea that the ghosts remained on stage after they had haunted Richard and Richmond in their dreams. During the ensuing battle on the following morning they took active parts, leading the swords of the combatants in a way that led to the victory of Richmond.

Andrew Gillies (Forever Knight's Felix Twist) was also part of this production, playing Lord Stanley, one of the few survivors of the play.

This was the second production of "Richard III" I've seen on stage. The first was in Washington, DC with Geraint Wyn Davies as Richard. He played the part more seductively than Seana McKenna.